


P.S. I Luv Yu

by River9Noble



Series: BatLantern Week 2021 [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Green Lantern - All Media Types, Green Lantern - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, BatLantern Week 2k21, Batlantern - Freeform, Bisexual Character, Enemies to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Porn, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Romance, Silver Soul Pen, bruhal, but also lovers to lovers lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29904813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/River9Noble/pseuds/River9Noble
Summary: Writing messages back and forth to their soulmate with their silver soul pen is great.Sure, it would be nice if the Universe let you share personally identifying details, but Bruce Wayne and his yet-unmet soulmate Hal Jordan already know they're in love - just as surely as Batman and the Green Lantern know they hate each other.(Batlantern Week 2k21 - Day 1 - Soulmates)
Relationships: Hal Jordan/Bruce Wayne
Series: BatLantern Week 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2198925
Comments: 24
Kudos: 110
Collections: Batlantern Week, Bisexual Visibility, Queer Characters Collection





	P.S. I Luv Yu

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I Just Want A Soulmate Who Doesn't Hate Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24912469) by [RebeccaAnabelBurrows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebeccaAnabelBurrows/pseuds/RebeccaAnabelBurrows). 



> I'm SO EXCITED to publish my first BruHal fic ever!!!
> 
> This is for BatLantern Week 2k21 - Day 1 Prompt - **Soulmates** / Meeting the family/Batkids find out
> 
> I was inspired for this fic by RebeccaAnabelBurrows’ great BatLantern soulmate fic that introduced me to the silver pen AU.

"Mama! Mama!" four year old Hal Jordan squealed, toddling into the kitchen as fast as his chubby legs would take him one December morning.

His older brother Jack was already sitting at the breakfast table, eating a bowl of cereal.

"Not too loud, Hal," his mother said, suppressing a groan as she bent her six-months pregnant body over to pick up her youngest son and place him at the table. "Daddy wants to sleep in on his day off."

"Mama, I got a message!" Hal said with bright eyes, shoving his tiny arm in her face.

"Oh! - _oh_ ," his mother stared at the sparkling silver words on her son's arm, her tone going from pleasantly surprised to grim in an instant.

She pursed her lips together and didn't speak.

"What's it say?" Hal persisted, eagerly waving his arm at her while Jack stood up in his chair and leaned across the table to look, too.

"Sit down, Jack," Jessica scolded in a distracted voice.

"Mama!" Hal pleaded insistently.

"I'll tell you when you're older," his mother finally said, frowning to herself and moving across the kitchen to pour Hal a bowl of cereal.

"My parents died last night," seven-year old Jack announced as he took his time sitting back down.

"Jack!" Jessica snapped in anger. "What did I just say?" she hissed at him.

In his booster seat, little Hal's eyes had gone wide and were slowly filling with tears.

"Their mommy and daddy died?" Hal whispered.

"Yep," Jack said matter-of-factly. "Sucks for her," he said cheerfully, scooping up another spoonful of Cheerios before getting smacked on the back of his head by his approaching mother.

Hal's mouth was wobbling and big, fat tears started splashing down his cheeks.

"Oh, Hal," his mother sighed, sitting down next to him and smoothing her hand over his head, her belly too large to comfortably pull him into her lap.

"I wanna write back," Hal sniffed.

"You don't know your letters," Jack informed him.

"Mama can write for me," Hal insisted, drawing his eyebrows together in a toddler sized glare at his older brother.

"No," Jessica said firmly.

"But Mama - " Hal said, staring up at her in alarmed distress. "She's sad -"

"You're too young for her to be talking to you about things like this," Jessica said in a voice that said that was final and Hal would stop arguing if he knew what was good for him.

Hal's lips pouted out and he couldn't stop his tears, but Jessica didn't scold him, and she even sat by his side snuggling him with one arm until he quietly asked for his cereal.

* * *

Hal liked the toy airplane that his father gave him later that afternoon for Christmas, the one that Daddy said looked just like the ones that Daddy flew at work, but a tiny, unselfish piece of Hal's heart wished that Daddy had given him a silver marker instead.

Daddy had grunted and looked grumpy when Mama whispered to him about the note on Hal's arm, the note that had by now disappeared even though the hurt in Hal's heart was still right there.

Mama and Daddy had silver markers, Hal knew, but they used them a lot to write each other notes about what Mama forgot to tell Daddy to get from the grocery store and if Daddy's flight got delayed and he'd be home late. They would notice if they couldn't find their markers.

Jack, though… the wheels in Hal's head started turning. Jack had gotten a silver marker for his birthday this year, but after enthusiastically writing a whole armful of notes to his soulmate that he never got a response to, Jack had never used it again.

When Mama tucked Hal in for his afternoon nap, which Jack didn't have to take anymore because he was a big boy, a fact which Hal usually viewed as a grave injustice, Hal waited cautiously until his Mama's footsteps faded away before quietly climbing out of his bed and tip-toeing over to the toy shelf.

If Jack was smart, he would have put his marker in his pencil box so he wouldn't lose it and … tiny fingers dug through the mess of half used colored pencils and fancy regular pencils with USAF printed on them mixed in with an assortment of crayons until there, at the bottom of the box, Hal uncovered his shiny grail.

Quickly padding back over to his bed, Hal clambered up (a feat he could only accomplish by holding the marker in his mouth 'cause he had to use both hands) and he hid under the covers with his prize.

Uncapping the lid, Hal got to work.

* * *

Eight year old Bruce Wayne had spent Christmas Day sitting numbly in his bedroom, refusing to respond to Alfred's gentle invitations to come downstairs for a cup of tea, or a bite to eat, or a story or a hug or company, instead preferring to sit in his window seat with his knees drawn up to his chest, staring out at the snow-covered grounds of Wayne Manor.

It was chilly in the window, drafts comings through the antique panes, but not as cold as it had been last night on the way home from the movie - the movie Bruce had been so excited to see that he had begged to go, the movie his father had indulgently laughed over and said it could be an early Christmas present, the movie he and his parents had been walking back to their car from when - when -

Sobs were wracking Bruce's body again when his left arm began to gently sizzle. Quickly wiping his eyes on his sweater sleeve, Bruce eagerly pushed up his cuff and looked to see what his soulmate had written back.

He'd been worried when they hadn't answered yet, that maybe they weren't going to. Maybe they weren't born yet or maybe they didn't like him or maybe Bruce had been stupid to reach out to them with such a sad first message or -

Oh.

Bruce looked at the shakily drawn, lopsided sad face festooned with a myriad of tears running down into the crook of his elbow. Above it, two equally potato-like blobs appeared, one blooming with a smily face and squiggly arms that hugged its now-sad faced neighbor. On the back of his left hand, slowly and cautiously, a misshapen heart appeared.

Bruce sniffed, his throat tight.

They were _little_.

But - they cared. A tiny flame of warmth lit up his broken heart. Bruce waited until the marks disappeared and then took his silver pen out of his shirt pocket to draw his own version of his tiny soulmate's pictogram: two embracing stick figures, both with happy faces this time, and another heart (this one symmetrical) on the back of his palm.

A few minutes later, enthusiastic X's and O's and hearts and happy faces filled his arm, and Bruce curled up into his pillows and cried and cried.

* * *

As the days and months passed, his tiny soulmate never failed to draw him a daily picture, always ending with a heart on the hand, and Bruce did the same, eschewing words because clearly his soulmate couldn't read, and while someone had obviously filled them in on the contents of Bruce's first message, a faint warning bell insisted on ringing in the back of his mind about the fact that no one ever transcribed a spoken message from his soulmate.

Maybe their parents believed that would be interfering in the soul process - some families had strict rules and traditions around communication with soulmates, Bruce knew, and the Universe itself wouldn't even allow any names or locations to travel through the Bond, forcing soulmates to meet naturally at Fate's determined time, after all.

So Bruce didn't want to upset his mate or their family with messages that his soulmate couldn't understand on their own, if their parents believed soul communication was meant to remain private, and anyway, the pictures were _nice_. Sometimes a bit too messy or poorly drawn for Bruce to understand, but the kindness of the fact of their daily appearance meant everything to his constantly grieving, orphaned heart.

* * *

Bruce was ten when the first words from his soulmate appeared on his arm in tipsily drawn, uneven letters.

_I LUV YU._

Along with their now ritualistic end of transmission heart on the back of his hand.

Bruce sniffed and tried not to cry, but oh, who was he kidding. The tears fell hard as he wrote back

_I LUV YU 2_

He wanted them to be able to understand it, after all.

* * *

By the time Bruce was twelve, he was damn sure his soulmate knew how to spell it right, because they had progressed to actual sentences and longer words, but they still cheekily finished every message with I LUV YU, plus an ever more evenly sided heart on the hand.

Bruce, of course, did the same.

Bruce was still twelve the day his soulmate's troubled message scrawled frantically across his forearm.

_I just watched my dad die in a plane crash._

Bruce gasped and let out a silent cry of horror as tears began splashing down his face while he fumbled for his pen. Even before he could uncap it, a second line of text was appearing.

_He was the pilot._

Bruce shook, sobs overtaking him as he struggled for a minute to think of what to say, what _could_ he say - but then -

* * *

Hal started sobbing even harder in the airfield bathroom stall he'd bolted to and locked himself in when he saw the sad face with tears running down it appear on his arm seconds after his frantically written message to his soulmate had faded, followed by two stick figures hugging, both sad and one with a huge heart beating out of its chest, followed by I LUV YU and hearts inside hearts inside hearts drawn on the back of his hand.

He wished he could keep the pictures on his arm forever, but of course they started to fade moments after he'd read them like they always did. As soon as they were gone, he scribbled I LUV YU 2 back with his own hearts on his hand, and then he just kept drawing more hearts, up and down his arm and on fingers and his palm until the first ones had faded and his soulmate's return message glowed out of his skin.

_I'm here. You're never alone._

All that day, and through the night, and all week, hearts kept popping up on his skin, all the time, until a month later, it felt like Hal and his soulmate had always been dashing off random hearts to each other every chance they got.

It didn't take away the pain of losing his dad. But it helped.

* * *

Bruce was sixteen when his soulmate's desperate looking question popped up on his arm, the letters traced deep and heavy and followed by a slew of question marks.

_Are you a boy or a girl?_

Bruce felt his stomach sink. His soulmate's gender didn't matter to him either way; he was old enough to know he found both sexes attractive and it had always seemed like a non-issue to him, but as the letters on his arm began to fade, Bruce took a deep breath.

It would be ok, right? Sure, there were platonic soulmates, and not everybody decided to date or marry their soulmates even if they were romantic, and even romantic soulmates could end up divorced, but he'd just assumed - he'd been so sure - surely they were going to be romantic soulmates and get married, right?

 _I'm a boy,_ Bruce wrote back with shaking hands.

Time had never seemed to move so slowly as it passed while he waited for his writing to fade and his soulmate's response to appear.

 _Oh, thank GOD -_ Bruce finally saw, and his breath flew out in a whoosh.

 _Me too -_ his soulmate was continuing to write.

_My family always said you were a girl - they just assumed - so I just figured I WOULD like girls eventually - but I don't. Like them. Like that._

Bruce's relieved smile was tickling his lips when a second, panicked message appeared.

_Wait, do you like boys? Like to kiss and stuff?_

_Yes,_ Bruce immediately wrote back with a bigger smile on his face. _I like both, but I like you best._

 _Oh_ \- Bruce read. _Have you -_

The words faded out before the rest of the question appeared.

 _I've never kissed anybody_ \- Bruce wrote, taking pity on his nervous mate. _I only want to kiss you. And stuff. Becaue I luv yu,_ he wrote, adding the heart to hand.

He laughed out loud when his soulmate wrote back

_ME 2!_

_You promise you'll wait? -_ appeared in smaller letters a minute later. _I know you're older than me._

 _I'll wait,_ Bruce wrote back. _I promise_. _You promise 2?_

 _I promise_ \- he saw, and his heart finally settled back down in his chest.

* * *

Ten years later, four years into being Batman and two days into the tentative formation of the Justice League, a collaboration he was already rueing because Batman worked _alone_ , dammit, and these other heroes were annoying as fuck, Bruce let out a hearty chuckle of empathy when his soulmate's newest message appeared.

_Got a new assignment at work, Spooky, and oh my God is this one guy an ASSHOLE._

_As soon as we meet, I'll kick his ass for you,_ Bruce wrote back, his lips twitching. _And then you can kick my asshole's ass, cause God, I've got one too._

 _Geez_ \- his flyboy wrote back. _Fate, amirite?_

 _At least we get to suffer together?_ Bruce wrote, still chuckling, because after all these years, talking to his soulmate still softened all the hard edges of his life.

 _I'd prefer being happy together_ -his mate wrote. _Hell, I'd even take suffering together but face to face. When am I gonna meet you?_

 _Soon, I hope_ , Bruce sighed.

 _Yeah_ \- his mate wrote back, adding some loopy hearts and kisses up and down his arm.

 _You alone?_ Bruce asked him, doodling his own hearts.

 _Oh hell yes_ \- came the immediate reply. Bruce smirked and shoved his sweatpants down his hips in bed.

 _Get naked for me?_ Bruce wrote and he laughed out loud when his mate promptly wrote back, _Way ahead of you, Spooky._

God, he loved him and if actual sex was as good as their sexy long distance games, well, Bruce thought he'd have absolutely no complaints at all when he and his soulmate finally met in person.

* * *

"Look, you arrogant sonofabitch, you are not the only one who gets to make the plans!" the Green Lantern yelled at Batman, slamming his hand down on the Watchtower conference table for good measure.

"Lantern," Superman tried to say in a tired, placating voice around Batman's impassive glare -

"No!" Hal snapped. "I'm the Lantern assigned to this sector. Alien threats are specifically my jurisdiction, and this oversized furry spends his time corralling crooks with a bad case of Party City in the most cursed city on the planet. _ON the planet,"_ he repeated for extra emphasis.

" _ALIEN THREATS_ ," Hal said, loudly and slowly thumping his chest. " _PARTY CITY_ ," he said, gesturing to Batman.

"Perhaps if you've finished acting like a two year old, we could stop wasting time and move on to actually implementing my plan for _action_ ," Batman growled, only to be loudly overruled by an erupting Green Lantern who screamed, "We are not using YOUR PLAN!"

Superman turned quietly to Wonder Woman.

"Do you have a plan?" he whispered to her. "Because we could go deal with the aliens while they argue."

"The Green Lantern should take point," Diana said with a small sigh. "It is his provenance. But - "

"But you don't want to be the one to tell Batman that?" Clark groaned.

Diana gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

* * *

"You can't just admit my plan worked, can ya, Bats?" Hal said cockily as Batman tried to shoulder his way past him in the Watchtower corridor hours later, when the aliens had, thankfully, finally been appeased and sent packing.

"And you can't admit that you behaved like a child and wasted our time!" Batman snapped right back. "My plan would have worked just as well, but instead you had to delay a solution with needless antagonism and posturing."

"Needless?" Hal said in an outrageously offended voice, following Bats into the transporter room. "NEEDLESS? Look, just because everyone else around here is scared of you and lets you boss them around doesn't mean -"

The rest of his rant went unheard as Batman dissolved in the zeta tube, leaving Hal to kick the wall in frustration.

* * *

_I hate my life -_ Bruce read on his arm later that night.

 _What happened, baby?_ he wrote back, frowning in concern.

 _That asshole at work_ \- his soulmate wrote - _totally tried to undermine me today._

 _What a piece of shit,_ Bruce wrote back, drawing his eyebrows together ferociously. God, he looked forward to the day when he could kick that prick's ass for all the hell he put his soulmate through, and he told his flyboy so, getting back soft smiley faces and hearts in return.

 _You always make me feel better, Spooky_ \- his mate wrote. - _Must be your superpower._

 _Must be,_ Bruce wrote back with a smile, feeling the cozy warmth in his heart that always flowed hotter when he and his mate connected with their soul messages. _I luv yu,_ he added with their hand heart.

 _Luv yu 2 baby_ \- he read back, and he traced the heart on his hand until long after it disappeared.

* * *

"Oh!" the Green Lantern said in surprise one day a few months later, drawing himself up abruptly as he entered the Watchtower conference room ten minutes late for their meeting, cup of coffee in hand, and saw not only the rest of his teammates already seated at the table waiting for him, but a pint sized kid in a yellow cape and green mask cheerfully swinging his legs in the seat next to Batman.

Hal slowly walked over and sat himself down next to the kid.

"I didn't know we were welcoming a new member today," he said, sticking his hand out. "Welcome to the Justice League, hero," Hal said very seriously. "I'm the Green Lantern."

"I'm Robin!" the boy said brightly, his eyes lighting up and his chest puffing out with pride. "Batman's partner!"

Behind him, the Bat's already angry-at-GL-not-only-because-he-was-late-again-but-also-because-he-existed face softened the slightest bit as Hal and Robin gravely shook hands.

"Batman's partner, huh," Hal said, looking impressed. "Well," he said, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "you must be a formidable superhero if the Bat chose you for his partner," Hal said. "He only works with the best."

Robin's smile grew even wider as Diana, Clark, and J'onn exchanged fond looks.

"That's right!" Robin declared. "And that's me! Right, B?" he said, craning around to look up at his … mentor? Father?

Imagine the biggest asshole on the team being a dad, Hal thought with some mild concern. The kid looked happy enough, though, and geez, Bats was even giving the kid a tiny smile. Well, damn. Hal had never once seen a smile on Batman's face.

"That's right, Robin," the Bat nodded, making the kid's face light up even more. God, this kid was full of sunshine. He must get it from his mom, Hal decided, but the idea of the Bat making a baby with a bright, cheerful woman was so absurd that Hal almost choked.

"So, how old are you, kid?" Hal asked politely, because his head hurt and he could've used four more hours of sleep, and the longer he chatted with the kid, the more time he'd have to finish his coffee before Bats started lecturing them all.

"Nine," Robin said, turning back to look at the Green Lantern again.

"Oh," Hal said, pleasantly surprised. "That's how old my kid is, too," he said.

Behind Robin, Batman did choke. Heh. That was funny.

"You have a son, GL?" Superman asked, sounding as faintly stunned as Wonder Woman and J'onn looked. "Or daughter?" Superman amended.

"Yep," Hal said, swigging some more coffee. "I do. A son," he said.

"With who?" Batman asked suspiciously.

It really wasn't any of his business, because he and Superman hadn't shared their secret identities with the team either, but what the hell. Hal wanted to finish his coffee.

"My soulmate," he said easily, taking another sip.

"I was under the impression that you had not yet met your soulmate, Green Lantern," J'onn said, looking confused.

"Not in person," Hal said. "But we decided together to adopt our kid. He lives with my soulmate," he added.

"I'm adopted, too!" Robin chirped out, looking excited.

"Aw, that's great, kid," Hal said with a genuinely sincere smile. "Is Batman a good dad?" he asked without any malice in his tone, but truly worried about the answer.

"He's the second best dad," Robin beamed, "because my real dad was the best dad," the boy tacked on more quietly, suddenly looking downcast.

Batman's lips tightened into a thin line behind his son's head as he leveled GL with an icy glare.

"He died?" Hal said anyway in a gentle voice, ignoring the Bat's mounting ire.

Robin silently nodded, blinking rapidly behind his mask.

"My dad died too, when I was about your age," Hal said. "That's hard," he said, reaching over and squeezing the back of Robin's neck in a comforting gesture.

Robin turned and looked at him. Across the table, Hal caught Diana's tight swallow.

"I miss him," Robin said in a threadbare whisper. "And my mom."

"I miss my dad, too," Hal said softly. "I don't know if that ever goes away," he said, "but it does get easier to live with."

Hal happened to glance up at the Bat's face and was startled to see him looking astonished but also undeniably grateful - at him. The Green Lantern. Huh. Maybe Bats had a heart buried somewhere underneath all that Kevlar, after all. 'Cause his kid clearly liked him, and Hal was beginning to think that the Bat maybe cared a hell of a lot about his kid, too.

"How does it get easier?" the little Robin was asking him.

Hal drank another mouthful of coffee as he thought about his answer.

"Partly with time," he said finally, "but other people in your life help make it better, too," he said. "My soulmate helped me a lot," he said. "And I'm sure Batman helps you," he said.

"Yeah," Robin said, smiling a little bit again. "He does," he said, wiping his nose on his green leather glove before Batman took out a tissue from a compartment on his Batbelt and handed it to him.

Aw, fuck. That was kinda cute.

"My other dad helps me, too," Robin said after blowing his nose and setting the tissue down on the table.

"Batman!" GL coughed, trying to mask his laughter. "You're _married_?" he said.

Because yeah, that was still damn funny even if it wasn't a sunny-eyed, smilingly cheerful baby mama.

"No," Batman muttered, not meeting Hal's eyes and clearly not wanting to elaborate, but Robin was happily explaining.

"My other dad is B's soulmate," Robin said. "They haven't met yet so I haven't met him yet either for real. But we write back and forth to each other on B's arm," Robin said. "And he's really nice and I like him a lot," Robin finished happily.

The pit of Hal's stomach dropped out. It took more willpower than making constructs with his ring, but he slowly forced himself to lift his eyes up from the kid and meet Batman's equally haunted, grimly knowing stare.

At the end of the table, J'onn cleared his throat. Loudly.

"Little one," Diana said, briskly standing to her feet. "I believe that we should take you on a tour of the Watchtower commissary."

"What's a commissary?" Robin asked, guilelessly sliding his eyes over to Wonder Woman.

"A cafeteria," Superman said, also getting to his feet. "I don't know about you, but I could use a snack before we start this meeting."

"As could I," said J'onn as he, too, stood. "Are you familiar with the Earth concoction known as ice cream, youngling?"

"I love ice cream!" Robin exclaimed.

"I believe we might find some in the commissary," J'onn said, beckoning to Robin with his hand.

"Can I go, B?" Robin asked, turning to his father in a burst of enthusiasm.

Batman mutely nodded without breaking eye contact with Hal, who had broken out into a cold sweat and was feeling more than a little nauseous.

"Thanks, B!" Robin was cheerfully saying as he ran over to join the other three Justice League members who were carefully not looking at Batman and the Green Lantern as they quickly exited the room. "I'll bring you back some!" he called over his shoulder. "You, too, Green Lantern," he yelled from the corridor.

"Fuck," Hal muttered as soon as the door slid shut behind them. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he mumbled, finally breaking eye contact with his soulmate - his fucking soulmate - whose guts he fucking hated - Hal buried his face in his hands on the conference table with a strangled moan.

Beside him, Batman was silent while Hal hyperventilated, but if anyone could freak out silently, it would be Bats, Hal thought to himself sourly. God, tell him this wasn't happening. Maybe - maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was just coincidence. Right? It could be. Because the love of his life could not possibly be the man who Hal hated more than anyone in the world and -

The back of his hand was tingling.

Hal lifted his head and depowered his Green Lantern suit with his ring. As his gloves flickered away he saw the heart with I LUV YU written inside it.

Hal choked on a sob and turned his head to look at Batman, who had taken his gauntlets off and was sitting with silver pen in hand, regarding Hal with sad eyes.

"Spooky," Hal wrung out, before his shaking tears overtook him.

"I believe," Batman said quietly, scooting over into the chair next to him and reaching his bare hand out to wipe the tears from first one side of Hal's face, then the other, even though they kept coming down so the gesture was basically pointless -

"I believe I owe myself an ass-kicking," Batman said solemnly.

Hal gasped in a ragged, tear-filled laugh.

"Ya think?" he said, wiping his eyes with his own hand before Batman took out more tissues from his stupid belt and began doing it for him properly.

"I'm sorry, baby," Batman whispered, looking so shamefaced and brokenhearted and vulnerable and Hal wasn't quite sure how he got himself into Spooky's arms, sobbing against his chest and gripping that damned uncomfortable armor as tightly as he could, but he was there and his soulmate was hugging him and kissing his hair and maybe also crying into it, and by the time Hal's tears finished he knew that he had to say it, too, because it wasn't like it was all B's fault -

"I gotta kick my own ass, too, I guess," Hal said, twisting his head up to look at Bat - no, Spooky. His Spooky.

The answering amused grunt was all Batman, though. Fuck. That was going to take some getting used to.

"I could think of some other ways to punish our asses," Spooky said slowly with a playful smirk. "As opposed to kicking them."

Hal shook his head and exhaled on a laugh.

"Oh, I know you can, baby," he said, sighing loud and long as he scrubbed at his face with both hands. "I'm well acquainted with your creativity surrounding our asses."

"You're beautiful," B said softly, and the raw honesty of his words hit Hal like a bolt of lightning to the gut.

"Lemme see you, too," Hal demanded, dragging Batman's hands up to his cowl. "C'mon, Spooky. I've been waiting a long time for this, ya know."

Batman hesitated.

"Aw, baby," Hal said. "Even if you're ugly as a dog under there, you're my dog."

Batman's cheeks actually reddened the slightest bit, but he was shaking his head.

"No, it's not that," he said. "I mean, from what I've been told - and I've been told - I mean, the thing is -" Batman growled in frustration. "You've already been disappointed once by me, and -"

"Hey. HEY," Hal interrupted him firmly. "I'm not disappointed," he said. "Baby, I'm not," he insisted when Batman gave him a skeptical look.

"Shocked? Scared? Panicked? Angry? Confused?" Hal said. "Yeah. Ok. But I'm not disappointed, Spooky," he said more softly, swiping his thumb over his soulmate's lips.

"Kinda pissed you dressed our kid up in a costume and made him your partner, though," Hal did add, frowning.

"Sidekick," Batman said.

"But you take him out on the streets with you?" Hal said, his voice rising.

"He was sneaking out on his own to try to catch his parents' murderer -" Batman said.

"- a fact you could not have discussed with me?" Hal retorted, glaring at him.

"Not without being able to tell you I was Batman!" Bats snapped. "Can we focus on the topic at hand?"

"The topic that's more important than our SON?" Hal glowered back at him.

Batman let out a frustrated growl before closing his eyes as if praying for patience. Hal sighed and looked away, feeling the pain ricochet through his heart.

"We can discuss Robin," Batman said quietly after a terrifying minute of utter silence, reopening his eyes and gently palming Hal's face back to meet his own. "Some boundaries, or limits, or…" he trailed off. "I don't want to take it away from him, though," he said. "Batman lets me channel my anger and rage at my parents' murders into something positive," he said in a voice that was getting a little raspy with emotion.

"Our son needs that, too, baby," Bats softly pleaded, stroking his thumb over Hal's cheek. "I know how much losing your dad hurts you," he said, and maybe Hal was swallowing a lump in his throat because fuck if Bats wasn't being so damn gentle for once, and actually trying to have a conversation with him for a change -

"I'm not making light of your pain," Batman said, "but murder -" he paused. "It stirs up an almost unquenchable thirst for retribution and revenge," he said. "The darkness is always there, gnawing away at me - and at him, too, I see it -"

"And you just leaned right into that darkness, huh, Spooky," Hal said with a tired but fond sigh. "Mr. I Am The Night. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, was that it?"

"Something like that," Batman said with a wry smile. "Applies to us, too, by the way."

Hal snorted and pinched his eyebrows.

"We're going to talk very damn seriously about our kid before you ever take him out on the streets again," he said.

"Ok," Batman said quietly.

"Did you just agree with me?" Hal said, raising an eyebrow. "My God. Pigs must be flying. Hell hath frozen over."

"I love you," Batman said, looking for all the world like he meant it.

Hal sighed.

"Take the damn cowl off, Spooky. I'm not gonna say it to your mask," he said.

"Oh. Right. Back to that -" Batman said uncomfortably.

"Babe, I swear to God -" Hal started to spew, so Batman just reached up and yanked his cowl backwards.

"Well, shit," Hal deadpanned, blinking into the face of billionaire Bruce Wayne.

"Yeah. Hi," Bruce mumbled, rubbing an embarrassed hand over his jaw. "Sorry," he said.

Hal shook his head in utterly exhausted bemusement.

"Please tell me the money makes up for the damn paparazzi?" he said.

"I don't really know?" Bruce said, shifting in his seat.

"Well, I'm damn well gonna try to find out," Hal said. "Hal Jordan, by the way. Test pilot for Ferris Airlines. Formerly of the Air Force, but you know that part. Lovely to meet you," he said, saucily sticking out his hand to shake, but Bruce ignored it and went right for the kiss, slipping his hands around Hal's waist and brushing his lips over Hal's, oh so gentle at first, before glancing up at him.

"I waited," he said.

"Me, too, Spooky," Hal said with a soft smile.

"I love you," Bruce added.

Hal smiled wider and snatched Batman's silver pen off the table.

I LUV YU 2, Bruce saw inside the heart on both their hands.

"So we damn well better make this work," Hal added.

"We will," Bruce said. "We're both too stubborn to quit."

"There is that," Hal said

"There's that," Bruce agreed.

"I love you, Spooky," Hal said against his lips.

"I love you, too, flyboy," Bruce whispered into their kiss.

_The End_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments are much appreciated! I'll be publishing a new Batlantern fic every day this week for the event, so I hope you keep coming back :) 
> 
> You can check out the other event fics on the AO3 collection Batlanternweek2k21 and on Tumblr @Batlanternweek2k21 
> 
> You can also follow me on Tumblr as @River9Noble. Come say hi!


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